Dear Neighbors,
Today, a Kentucky state grand jury indicted Brett Hankinson, a now-discharged former police detective, for endangering Breonna Taylor’s Louisville neighbors by recklessly firing his gun during a raid on her apartment in March. No officer was charged with killing Ms. Taylor, who was innocent of any crime.
According to the New York Times, "Hankison had fired into the covered sliding glass patio door and window of Ms. Taylor’s apartment building in violation of a department policy that requires officers to have a line of sight." Bullets also entered the apartment of a neighbor who was home with his pregnant wife and 5 year old child, who were not injured. Hawkinson is the only one of the three officers who has been dismissed from the force, with a termination letter stating that he showed "an extreme indifference to the value of human life."
The failure to charge any officer with violations for their role in the death of Breonna Taylor while executing an erroneously issued, no-knock search warrant has already led to protests in Louisville. For more background, this New York Times analysis is excellent.
Mayor Lightfoot has called for a moment of silence at 7 P.M. in memory of Breonna Taylor and for all of us to say her hame. I hope we can join together on our sidewalks and porches to honor this innocent life lost.
Next Steps
Protests have been scheduled for tonight in Grant Park and in other neighborhoods.
As we have reported in our earlier newsletters, the City has launched a new
Public Safety Strategy. That strategy was
tested in late August. This means that additional "assets" will be placed downtown and in our area around North and Clybourn - you may have already seen bollards, barriers, and large trucks positioned around the the area so that, if necessary, our citizens and commercial corridors can be safe, while peaceful protests can occur.
The City will be implementing its Neighborhood Protection Plan tonight, and our Commanders are key participants.
Rescheduled Public Safety Meeting
As a result of these developments, tonight's Public Safety Meeting will be rescheduled until next Wednesday so that our Commanders and other City officials can focus their efforts on immediate needs.
The same participants will be available next week. Please join us then. Due to technical limitations of Zoom, we ask that you click the link below and re-register. We will give you the Zoom link one hour before the meeting starts.
We have catalogued the many questions that you have sent us, and are giving them to our panelists so that they can be ready to answer your questions.
43rd Ward Public Safety Forum
Rescheduled
Wednesday, September 30
6:00 p.m.
Sign up here. After registering for the webinar, you will receive an email about an hour before the start of the meeting with the link for and instructions how to access the Zoom meeting. Please plan to log into Zoom and access the meeting 10-15 minutes before the official start time, so that there is enough time to troubleshoot any technical problems and familiarize yourself with its features. Please email us questions at yourvoice@ward43.org. We would like to collect as many questions as possible in advance to make sure we have answers at the meeting.
